Watch Live

Over 20 inmates escape from Guinea-Bissau prison

Over twenty inmates including “dangerous criminals” escaped from a prison on Sunday in the capital city of Guinea-Bissau.

The Bissau prison break occured due to a security lapse when a new prisoner was being placed in the cells, a prison source told AFP.

“In the process of placing a new prisoner in the cell, an inmate gave me a blow to the face. The others took advantage and came out, opened the other cells where dangerous criminals were kept and escaped,” the same source who is a prison guard disclosed.

The information was confirmed by a police source.

This prison is under the control of the judicial police in central Bissau and is the only prison in the capital.

“I saw prisoners pushing prison guards. One was thrown to the ground as they rushed out of the prison and mingled with people in the Bandim market,” a witness at the largest market in Bissau described the break.

Police were deployed around the market on Sunday night to search for the fugitives.